DAKAR, Senegal– Military forces in Burkina Faso killed 223 civilians, including babies and many children, in attacks on two villages accused of cooperating with militants, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday.
The mass killings took place on February 25 in the villages of Nondin and Soro in the north of the country, and some 56 children were among the dead, according to the report. The human rights organization called on the United Nations and the African Union to provide investigators and support local efforts to bring those responsible to justice.
“The massacres in the villages of Nondin and Soro are just the latest mass killings of civilians committed by the Burkina Faso army in its counterinsurgency operations,” Human Rights Watch executive director Tirana Hassan said in a statement. “International assistance is essential to support a credible investigation into possible crimes against humanity.”
The once peaceful nation has been devastated by violence that has pitted jihadists linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group against state-backed forces. Both sides have attacked civilians caught in the middle, displacing more than 2 million people, more than half of whom are children. Most attacks go unpunished and unreported in a nation governed by a repressive leadership that silences alleged dissidents.
The HRW report provided a rare first-hand account of killings by survivors amid a sharp rise in civilian casualties at the hands of Burkinabe security forces as the junta struggles to beat back a growing jihadist insurgency and strikes to residents under the pretext of counterterrorism.
In early April, The Associated Press verified reports of a Nov. 5 army attack on another village that killed at least 70 people. The details were similar: the army blamed the villagers for cooperating with the militants and massacred them, even the babies.
Witnesses and survivors told HRW that the February 25 killings were believed to have been carried out in retaliation for an attack by Islamist fighters on a military camp near the provincial capital Ouahigouya, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) away. .
The number of civilian deaths was higher than initially described by local officials. A prosecutor previously said his office was investigating the reported deaths of 170 people in attacks carried out in those villages.
A spokesperson for Burkina Faso’s government did not respond to requests for comment on the Feb. 25 attack. Officials previously denied killing civilians and said jihadist fighters often disguise themselves as soldiers.
More than 20,000 people have been killed in Burkina Faso since jihadist violence linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group first hit the West African nation nine years ago, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a nonprofit organization. profit based in the United States. .
Burkina Faso experienced two coups in 2022. Since taking power in September 2022, the junta led by Capt. Ibrahim Traoré has promised to push back the militants, but the violence has only worsened, analysts say. About half of Burkina Faso’s territory remains outside government control.
Frustrated by the lack of progress over years of Western military assistance, the junta severed military ties with former colonial ruler France and turned to Russia for security support.
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